


Red Among Greys

by sittelle



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst, Child Abuse, Dark Past, Fluff and Angst, Humanstuck, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Internalized Homophobia, Karkat Needs a Hug, M/M, POV Dave Strider, Slow Burn, dave is sad and it hurts, its lighter than it sounds, karkats a bamf lowkey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 02:25:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sittelle/pseuds/sittelle
Summary: In which Dave Strider accidentally makes a contract with the blood mage who killed his brother.





	Red Among Greys

Your name is Dave Strider, and you are scared shitless.

 

You had just woke up at the crisp time of 4 in the morning, hoping to be up and out before Bro woke up. You knew that if you didn't you'd end up injured, and you already weren't quite fully functional due to the other injuries from the last strife. You gathered your shit and crept out of your room, freezing when you saw him calmly sitting on the couch, facing away from you. You knew it had to be bad, worse than bad, fucking damn near catastrophic if he was up at this time. That meant he had worked late and drank for who knows how long, and he sure as hell didn't sleep. 

"Where ya goin', lil man?" his voice, heavily laden with intoxicated southern drawl, felt like a cold weight in your stomach. Your hands trembled, your cuts and bruises ached, and the silent sharp intake of breath you couldn't help but take made your whole side burn. You knew you broke a rib or two but shit. 

"Answer me when I ask ya questions. This point, you're just askin' for it ain't ya?" He stood, and you tensed. He walked outside and you knew damn well that if you didn't want to be rendered completely immobile you should follow. 

You wished the dawn sky weren't ruined by this absolutely shitty turn of events. If you were allowed to be a normal kid, it might just be beautiful. But Bros there and thus it’s too dark and just as terrifying as him. You two were out in the open, his stoic expression bathed in darkness, the only light coming from the sun that was not quite rising. He made the first move. You parried it poorly, a new gash on your arm. You were obviously in the defensive position here and this was not exactly a great start. As you moved you could _feel_ his eyes on you and it made your skin crawl. Knowing he was getting off on this. Getting off on you. On your pain and blood. 

Thinking about it made bile rise in your throat, and you opted to just focus on fucking surviving. 

 

By the time the sun was up you were a complete wreck. You couldn’t move without feeling like something was broken. It was the worst he’d done in a long time, and you knew that showing this made him just want to do more. The world around you was starting to have a purpleish sort of glow, you weren’t sure if it was because you were hallucinating or if something was actually making it this way. Soon after, however, the latter was proven to be true. You could feel the negative energy pulling at you, twisting itself around you. 

 

_Fuck this is bad. I need to get out of here I need to leave I can’t feel my body what is happening to me I don’t want to die_ -

 

Your thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain in your gut. Looking up from your new spot on the ground you saw Bro, his eyes seemingly glowing through his glasses. He looked more enraged than stoic. The purple energy didn’t touch him, it didn’t even get close to him. You didn’t ponder it for long though, the katana in your stomach demanded a bit more attention. You choked out what was supposed to be words but came out as bloody gurgles. 

A round of gunshots sounded behind him and he pulled the sword from you, spinning around. A boy with brown, almost red hair and tan skin wounded a ghostly pale woman, too tall to be human and skin pulled grotesquely tight around her bones. She fell, immobilized and screeching, but his attention went straight to Bro. He looked confused for a moment, his eyes wandering from the lack of the now fading purple around him to you, bleeding out on the ground. 

“Oh you sick fuck,” he growled, the sound of his voice the opposite of what you’d expect from his body. He raised his gun, firing at Bro but he was already out of the way, coming towards the boy with the already bloody katana raised. 

Bro got a hit in on his shoulder, but he only flinched before grabbing his sword, new blood dripping from his palm. You looked on in horror, absolutely convinced that your brother would kill this kid. He had the katana back out, slashing toward his neck. He dodged, somehow, and the blood from the palm dropped twice to the ground before glowing a cherry red and opening into a chasm of the same color, sucking in the immobilized woman creature from before into its depths. The brown haired boy took advantage of the infinitesimal waver in Bro’s focus to create a tiny cut with his nail on his forearm, flicking the drop of blood into the chasm. He walked backwards over it as if it were still just grass, oddly not getting sucked in. 

You were fully prepared for Bro to kill him, so you scrunched your eyes up tightly so you didn’t have to see it. The only thing you heard was a sickening crunch. You kept your eyes shut for a moment, not wanted to see whatever gore he created of the poor boy. 

You almost jumped out of your skin when you felt a gentle hand on your shoulder. Your eyes snapped open, meeting a foreign pair of bright red catlike ones. 

“Can you feel anything?” He murmured, his voice a lot deeper and softer than before. Less gruff. 

You couldn’t speak, coughing up a sputter of blood. You settled for a weak nod. 

He sighed, closing his eyes and minutely tightening his hand on your shoulder. His eyebrows furrowed, a weird numb lull buzzing through your veins as he did. When he opened his eyes, it disappeared. “Jesus fuck, what did he do to you?” You were more worried about what _he_  just did to you. 

“Ok, this is gonna feel a little weird but just trust me, okay?” He said soothingly, and for some reason you felt like you could. But you had just met him, and you didn’t trust that feeling. He set his bloodied palm over the wound on your stomach, and the buzzing centered itself around there. This time it wasn’t numbing, it felt like ice was being shoved into the wound. It didn’t hurt bad, but it sure as hell didn’t feel good. He pressed a little harder, a sharp sting like a blade coming out of the wound making you cry out involuntarily. Fuck, Bro’s gonna kill you for that. Where was he anyway? God this kids gonna get the both of you killed. 

You couldn’t think about that for much longer, because an actual piece of blade was pushed out of your wound and the numbness returned. You were relieved that the specific pain was gone, however your only reaction to it was to roll over and vomit. No food, just blood. The sight made you do it again. 

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. You’re safe now,” he said lowly. Who the fuck was he and what the fuck did he just do? You rolled back to face him. 

“We gotta go,” You croaked out, panic clenching your already pained throat, “he... he’ll kill us. Both.”

For some reason, one of his hands went to stroke the hair back from your forehead, the other leaving a numbness on your other injuries. 

“He won’t. He’s gone now. He can’t hurt you anymore.” 

The numbness reached your head, and you began to feel drowsy. You didn’t like it, it reminded you of too many bad memories. 

“What the fuck did you do to me?” You gritted out. 

“I’m healing you,” He spoke so softly to you. You didn't remember the last time that tone was directed to you.

“We have to _go_ ,” your voice was raspy and you absolutely hated it. You felt weak, absolutely pitiful. You couldn't think straight and your drowsiness only increased. The panic wasn't subsiding and you could feel yourself start to hyperventilate. He wasn't gone, he was still there, watching, waiting, you could feel it you could  _feel him-_  

"Okay, let's get you out of here," his voice sounded fuzzy, distant even though he was right beside you. Soon enough your vision went dark.

 

     

* * *

 

 

You woke up with a start, immediately jumping out of bed and pressing your back to a wall. Taking in your surroundings you realized you had no idea where the fuck you are. You were afraid that you had been out for a while because by the feel of it your wounds had healed. A groan from the other side of the room made your heart stop for a solid 5 seconds before you remembered the events that had happened before you passed out. He was asleep on a chair in the corner of the room, well was as in your meltdown had woke him up. He blinked up at you tiredly, mustering a small, almost gentle smile. 

"Feeling any better?" In the dim room his eyes seemed to almost glow as they settled on you. It was weird, but somehow fascinating. You immediately shook the thought out of your head. Bro would kill you if he knew.

"Where are we?" your voice had stabilized since the last time you spoke, but it was still a painful dry rasp. Your heart refused to stop racing, fear holding it like a vice.

"Used to be my friend's house but uh, she can't really stay here anymore. It's vacant but still in her name so we aren't  _technically_ trespassing," he said, standing and moving to sit on the edge of the bed furthest from you. "You never answered my question. How are your wounds?"

You looked from him, which took a surprising amount of effort that you blamed on fear, to your arms. Turning them over you realized that every slash had been healed and scarred, still a bit sore but nothing unbearable. Your hand shifted to graze over your stomach. It didn't hurt, and you were somehow fucking  _alive._  

"Fine. How the hell did you do that? How fuckin' long have I been knocked out?"  _How much trouble will I be in when I get home?_

"You've been sleeping for a couple hours. As to how I healed you, I'm gonna have to ask you to not freak the fuck out about it. Capiche?"  You noticed his demeanor become a little more nervous, and that did absolutely fuckall to ease your nerves.

"Comforting as hell, my man. Spill it." You weren't sure you really wanted to know, after that.

"Okay, so I'm a blood mage," he winced," and you made a contract with me." Your head spun in panic. Blood mages were illegal, they learned arcane arts that were long forbidden. They weren't even supposed to exist anymore considering they had all been burned at the stake years ago.

"I thought blood mages were extinct."

"Well, technically yeah. My parents knew they were going to be found and killed, so me and my brother were put into the care of one of my dad's closest friends, the woman who practically raised him. We grew up with them and she taught me how to practice with what I was born with. Years later I'm here on a mission, and I get stabbed by a sword with your blood on it. Important detail, a contract can only be made if the blood giving party, you, wants it. I only grabbed the sword to open the portal to the pocket dimension. But your blood carried your will and I accepted, so here we are." 

You only nodded weakly. "Why'd you accept?" Your voice was softer than you had intended it to be, and you cringed internally. You hated the look of pity that washed over his features when he looked at you.

"Should've seen yourself. You were fucking dying, and you offered a contract. Was I fucking supposed to just let you bleed out in front of me? I thought you knew about this shit and asked me for help!"

You only shrugged your shoulders briefly, thoroughly exhausted and ready for this conversation to end. 

"Anyway, we should get going. I have to deliver the...  _thing_ , from earlier back to base. Come on," he walked towards the door, but you didn't take it.  _Gross_. You only followed him, staying a few paces back. You wanted to be cautious, but the nagging thought at the back of your mind that  _you should trust him_ distracted you and in your annoyance you ended up just mindlessly keeping up with him.


End file.
